You got your offer accepted!
Congratulations! What do you do next? Let’s take a look at what to do once you get the offer accepted by the seller on your next home purchase.
You’ve found your dream home, went through the process of submitting the offer and now word has come back from the seller, Offer Accepted! Whoo-hoo! What are some of the next steps we need to do to get you off on the right foot? In North Carolina we use a form called the Offer to Purchase and Contract. This form we’ll use to submit your offer and if the seller accepts the terms their signature will complete the form and it turns into your contract. That sounds simple enough right? Once you get your offer accepted, now the work for us begins.
Once you get your offer accepted, you will need to get your non-refundable due diligence deposit and earnest money funds to us as we negotiated in your purchase contract. We, as your agent, will deliver the due diligence check to the listing agent and, here in North Carolina we are a closing attorney state, so the earnest money will be delivered to the closing attorney you named when we got your offer accepted.
Steps After Offer And Acceptance
The next few days after you get the offer accepted, will be designated as the Due Diligence period as negotiated in your contract, often times 1-3 weeks and this is the best time to schedule inspections. We will work together to determine which inspections are applicable to the home you are purchasing – home, a roof, or a chimney, and possibly well & septic.
It is highly advisable once you have your offer accepted that you DO NOT go buy anything on credit at this point. No new cars, furniture, appliances, etc. Nothing terribly expensive and nothing you would have to finance. This can cause your debt-to-income ratio to get skewed and your home loan can be denied. Do not co-sign on anyone else’s loan either. You got your offer accepted and your finances at that time need to stay in that state through closing day.
DO NOT pay off a bunch of debt or make large deposits that can’t be explained. You don’t want your lender wondering where all this money suddenly came from and all your hard work to get your offer accepted just vanishes because the lender will no longer approve you for the purchase.
Work With Your Lender
Get everything your lender has asked for AND get it to them as quickly as you can! The clock is ticking now that we have gotten your offer accepted and if they ask for a bank statement and it takes you 5 days to return it, it might delay your closing date. So, give them what they want when they want it.
You’ve gotten the offer accepted and now it’s time to play the waiting game, your loan will go to underwriting and the appraisal will be ordered. In the meantime, obtain quotes for homeowner’s insurance and get that in place as of the day of closing. We will work with the listing agent and the seller to obtain utility information so you can work on getting those to take effect day of closing, as well.
Closing Time
Just a few short weeks after you get the offer accepted, you’ll be at the attorney’s office closing on your new home and once the deed is recorded, you’ll have the keys and you can call it home sweet home!
Fear of the unknown is always scary but an experienced agent, like The Old Mill Group will always walk closely by you on your journey to get your offer accepted on your new home.
Offer Accepted! Now What?
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